Sylva farmers market gives veggies, takes plastic

You don’t have to barter with chickens at the Jackson County Farmers Market, or even pay with cash for that matter. The weekly market in Sylva accepts debit and credit cards to purchase farmers tokens, which in turn can pay for locally grown vegetables, strawberries, meats, fine crafts and more. It also accepts SNAP benefits.

The market is held from 9 a.m. to noon each Saturday at Bridge Park. This Saturday, June 1, will feature musician Mackenzie Grace Puckett playing near the information booth with both old time and contemporary guitar tunes and singing. Also, the program Family Art at the Market will be working with children and their families to make art under the pavilion starting at 10 a.m. City Lights Bookstore will have story time at 11 a.m. also under the pavilion.

Reading Room

Like some other readers I know, my taste in books these last 20 years or so has shifted from fiction to non-fiction, especially history, biography, and literary studies. I still follow certain novelists — Anne Tyler, Pat Conroy, James Lee Burke, and others — and still review novels for this paper, but find that works of fiction simply don’t appeal as much as when I was in my twenties and thirties, when I read stacks of novels and poetry.